Halloween’s Danielle Harris Is Bummed About The Reboot

Danielle Harris has admitted that she has mixed feelings about the upcoming reboot of the Halloween movie franchise. Harris was an integral part of the series in two of the 1980s sequels to John Carpenter’s original slasher film, as well as a prominent character in Rob Zombie’s re-imaginings of boogeyman Michael Myers. As more details around the story and casting of the 2018 film are released, she’s admitted online that she feels a little… ‘bummed’.

Harris first appeared in the franchise in 1988’s Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers when she was only 11 years old, beating out the likes of Melissa Joan Hart (Sabrina The Teenage Witch) for the role. Her character was Jamie Lloyd, the daughter of Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) and therefore the niece of the titular psychopath. The familial connection provided an excuse for the white-masked Michael to relentlessly pursue her, and to re-appear in Halloween 5 in 1989. She did however only cameo in brief archive footage for 1995’s Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers. In 2007, she then appeared as a rebooted character from the original Halloween (Annie Bracket) in Zombie’s version of the Michael Myers saga, as well as its sequel.

With all that in mind, it’s wouldn’t be a huge leap of faith to perhaps anticipate some contribution from Harris in the new version currently in production with Blumhouse. However, it seems that won’t happen and Harris voiced her feelings in a Facebook chat over the weekend (as was reported by Bloody Disgusting):

“I’m bummed out. And here’s why I’m bummed out… I’ve done four Halloween movies, and I’m grateful for those movies. I’m forever grateful and indebted to the Halloween franchise. It’s been good to me… What I am bummed about is [Laurie Strode] has a daughter. I was okay with it when she had a son, but they’re saying it’s the last one and… she has a daughter. And it’s not Jamie. It’s just kind of a bummer, I guess.”

Unlike others, Harris embraced horror movies from her early years, and has remained a ‘Scream Queen’. She’s appeared in several other horror franchises like Hatchet and has a large movie catalogue in the genre, having directed two of her own (Prank, Among Friends). This has given her a loyal fan base in the movie community, so her feelings certainly don’t appear to be coming from a negative place. It’s more to do with affection and a protective feeling for her very first film role, which held such an importance in the Halloween canon at one point.

If initial reports are to be believed, next year’s David Gordon Green-directed film will be a direct follow-on from the original 1978 film and ignore every sequel’s continuity since then. As such, Jamie Lloyd won’t even exist in this version. Instead, Judy Greer will be playing Laurie Strode’s daughter, who will now be called Karen. It’s even be speculated that Laurie will no longer be Michael’s sister in this update. All that aside, it would have still been cool to see a cameo of some kind from Harris, even without playing her original character. In the meantime, we’ll bring you any further updates on the new Halloween as we get them.